Unique and Overlapping Expression Patterns among Members of Photosynthesis-Associated Nuclear Gene Families in Arabidopsis

Megan G Sawchuk,Tyler J Donner,Philip Head,Enrico Scarpella

doi:10.1104/pp.108.126946

Megan G Sawchuk, Tyler J Donner + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.108.126946

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Journal: Plant Physiology	Publication Date: Sep 26, 2008
Citations: 83	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Alberta

Abstract

Light provides crucial positional information in plant development, and the morphogenetic processes that are orchestrated by light signals are triggered by changes of gene expression in response to variations in light parameters. Control of expression of members of the RbcS and Lhc families of photosynthesis-associated nuclear genes by light cues is a paradigm for light-regulated gene transcription, but high-resolution expression profiles for these gene families are lacking. In this study, we have investigated expression patterns of members of the RbcS and Lhc gene families in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) at the cellular level during undisturbed development and upon controlled interference of the light environment. Members of the RbcS and Lhc gene families are expressed in specialized territories, including root tip, leaf adaxial, abaxial, and epidermal domains, and with distinct chronologies, identifying successive stages of leaf mesophyll ontogeny. Defined spatial and temporal overlap of gene expression fields suggest that the light-harvesting and photosynthetic apparatus may have a different polypeptide composition in different cells and that such composition could change over time even within the same cell.

Highlights

Light provides crucial positional information in plant development, and the morphogenetic processes that are orchestrated by light signals are triggered by changes of gene expression in response to variations in light parameters
While analysis of global gene expression data for the RbcS family is not available, expression profiling has recently shown that the abundantly expressed Lhca1 to Lhca4 and Lhcb1 to Lhcb6 are coregulated in Arabidopsis, within that cluster, Lhcb6, Lhcb4.1, Lhcb4.2, and Lhcb2.3 are expressed with a partially divergent pattern (Klimmek et al, 2006)
We have investigated expression patterns of members of the RbcS and light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins (Lhc) photosynthesis-associated nuclear gene families in Arabidopsis at the cellular level during undisturbed development and upon controlled light context interference

Summary

Introduction

Light provides crucial positional information in plant development, and the morphogenetic processes that are orchestrated by light signals are triggered by changes of gene expression in response to variations in light parameters. We have investigated expression patterns of members of the RbcS and Lhc gene families in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) at the cellular level during undisturbed development and upon controlled interference of the light environment. Plants are exquisitely sensitive to their light environment and have evolved sophisticated biochemical systems to perceive intensity, quality, direction, and duration of the light signal (Chen et al, 2004) Information regarding these parameters is used to modulate an amazing variety of developmental processes throughout the plant’s life, defining light as one of the most important cues in plant development (Fankhauser and Chory, 1997; Franklin et al, 2005). RbcS and Lhc Gene Expression Patterns encoded by Lhcb2.1 and Lhcb2.2 are identical, while Lhcb2.3 differs by only one amino acid (Jansson, 1999; Klimmek et al, 2006). Single genes encode Lhcb, Lhcb, Lhcb, and Lhcb (Jansson, 1999; Klimmek et al, 2006)

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